Man Cut Off Oxygen Supply At Twin Cities Hospital: Police

MINNEAPOLIS — A Robbinsdale man is accused of shutting off the oxygen at North Memorial Health Hospital. An engineer at the hospital said the action could have killed patients, according to authorities.

Larry D. Raduenz Jr., 32, was charged with first-degree property damage in Hennepin County Wednesday. Just after 6 a.m. on Dec. 27, police say Raduenz climbed a fence, broke metal latches and zip ties on the hospital’s oxygen tank, and shut off the oxygen to the North Memorial.

Hospital engineers soon noticed a drop in the oxygen levels, reports the Star Tribune. They quickly spotted the damage and fixed the problem.

Police arrested Raduenz in St. Paul at a shelter Wednesday, reports FOX 9. Raduenz admitted he was angry with hospital, police said.

North Memorial Hospital released the following statement to FOX 9 on the incident:

"The North Memorial Health engineering team is continuously monitoring the hospital environment – from temperature to humidity to oxygen levels. If any of these systems move out of a predetermined acceptable range, they quickly act to identify the cause of the problem and fix it (and they are good at what they do!)."

"The hospital oxygen system which was affected during this incident is a system with multiple redundancies (aka several backup systems). When our engineers noticed the oxygen system pressure moving below the desired range, they quickly identified the issue and corrected it. They did this so effectively and efficiently that none of the backup systems even needed to be activated. No patients were harmed due to this system disruption."